Page 104 of Grumpy on the Mountain

"Looking for me?" Maisie sounds genuinely confused, her rainbow lollipop temporarily forgotten as she looks around the room full of concerned adults. "Why? I wasn't lost, Mommy."

"Honey, you disappeared," Sheriff Cooper says gently, kneeling down to Maisie's level. "Your mom couldn't find you anywhere."

"But I told the nice man I had to be home before dark," Maisie explains with the logic of a six-year-old who clearly doesn't understand why everyone's being so dramatic. "He said it was okay, that he just needed a little help."

Every adult in the room goes statue-still, like someone just announced the café ran out of Betty's cinnamon rolls.

"What nice man, sweetie?" Sienna asks, her voice carefully controlled even as her hands shake where they're gripping Maisie's shoulders.

"The one who wanted to surprise Aunt Molly!" Maisie announces brightly, looking around the room until her eyes land on me. "Hi, Aunt Molly! Did you like your surprise?"

Every eye in the room turns to me, and I feel like I'm about to throw up.

"What surprise, honey?" I manage to ask through the vile almost launching out of my mouth.

"Well, the nice man said he was your old friend from the city, and he wanted to congratulate you on your new job and your new life here in the mountains," Maisie explains with the breathless enthusiasm of a child sharing exciting news. "He asked me to show him all your favorite places so he could get you the perfect flowers!"

No, no, no.

"So I showed him the café where you have breakfast, and the tavern where you go on dates with Beau, and the bookshop, and told him about the lookout but said we can't go up there, and—"

Maisie continues her innocent catalog of every detail of my routine, every place I feel safe, every location that's become precious to me in this new life.

It's my entire existence in Stone River Mountain, delivered to Riley with a six-year-old's helpful enthusiasm.

"Did he ask about anything else?" Beau's voice is deadly quiet, and when I glance at him, his face has gone stone cold.

"Oh yes!" Maisie nods enthusiastically. "He wanted to know what time Aunt Molly gets home from work, and where she lives now. I didn't know how to get there, but he seemed really excited to surprise her!"

The lollipop slips from Maisie's fingers, hitting the floor with a small noise that suddenly sounds too loud in the silence of the room.

"He gave me candy and said I was very helpful," she adds quietly, finally sensing the tension in the room. She looks up to Sienna, eyes dropping into a saddened expression that breaks my heart. "Did I do something wrong, Mom?"

Just as Sienna shakes her head and hugs Maisie, Beau has apparently seen enough. He growls at my side and turns, stalking toward the door with the kind of raging fury that makes everyone else in the room get the hell out of the way.

"Beau!" I call after him, but he's already through the door.

"Where are you going?" I demand, chasing after him, completely forgetting my coat.

He pauses in the drive, snow swirling around him, and when he looks back at me, his eyes are the color of winter storms.

"I'm going to kill him," he says with absolute calm. "I'm going to kill that mother fucker for what he's done."

Chapter Twenty-Four

Beau

The snow falls harder as I storm through Sienna's driveway, rage burning through my veins like molten steel.

Every step I take away from that house, away from the knowledge that my brother used an innocent six-year-old to gather intelligence on the woman I love, feeds the fury building in my chest.

I'm going to find him. I'm going to wrap my hands around his throat and—

"Beau, stop!" Molly's voice cuts through the wind behind me, but I don't slow down. Can't slow down.

Not when that piece of shit is out there somewhere, probably planning his next move. Not when he's violated everything sacred about this town, this community that's become my sanctuary.

"BEAU!"